Friday, August 28, 2009

I ran across the photography of Michael Hall via my favorite site, Ffffound.com and thought they were a perfect fit for the work on my blog. They remind me that I am long overdue for a trip to the small, quiet towns that exist in middle America.

Hall's photos capture light and space eloquently and precisely. His subject matter is among my favorite and the solitude of his photos is almost unsettling.There is an air of tension in his work which is mostly void of human interaction but will sometimes include odd characters.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Today I received an e mail from Australian artist Nick Morris in reference to my artwork. He directed me to his website of his personal work and I am instantly a fan. Morris' work is a collage of icons of Americas' past. He uses screenprint, collaged paper ephemera, painting, and resin to create solid compositions that take me back in time.

In Morris' CV he states that his work is a culmination of lots of beer, muscle cars, Playboy magazines, soap opera-type romance, football and a few tough guys. TV was also a big influence with the likes of the Bionic Man, Planet of the Apes and the Brady Bunch being indelibly etched in my mind. It was not just the images themselves but the feelings associated with those images.

I think that he has nailed it perfectly and I hope to see his work in person someday!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Here are a few pictures that I made as a child. You can see my early influences of Superheroes, Star Trek, Motorcycles, andHot Rods. I will title them as I think they would have been titled as a child.

Enjoy! More to come as I scan them.

"Teamwork (Unity is spelled with a "U" and an "I")"

"Children..stop this fighting or there will be no ice cream after dinner"

Edvard Derkert contacted me about an upcoming show in Stockholm, Sweden taking place at Galleri KG52. The exhibit is titled "Cut and paste" and focuses on artists working in contemporary collage. One of my favorites, Kareem Rizk, is a part of the show but there are also many more talented artists including Liz Cohn, Fred Free, Px(c), Woefoep, and Richard Russell.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Michael Mew and I show at several of the same galleries and I have always been a fan of his work. Growing up in Los Angeles his exposure to American pop culture was immediate and influential on his thought process for his art. His exploration of back alleys afforded him the opportunity to collect discarded items and ephemera which finds its way into his artwork today. A fan of flea markets, he still searches for bits and pieces of ephemera that find its way into his composition.

Michael's work connects images that, at first, seemingly do not fit together but work harmoniously. Organic elements juxtaposed against man made icons balance each other out. Mew's use of typography from discarded paper labels and wrappers find themselves intertwined in his compositions.

I always look forward to Michael's new work and what his subjects will be next time around.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Over the past few months Randall Reid and I have been communicating back and forth about art, galleries, and life happenings. He has been kind enough to forward me jpegs of his newest work which is definitely some of his strongest to date.

These pieces incorporate more typography than some of his previous work. Partial words alluding subtle hints of where the recontextualized steeloriginally came from. Rusted segments showing a long history of the elements effect on the steel and rich, bold colors that speak to a era of heavy lead based paints.

My favorite piece is "Codes" where Reid takes his recurring theme of rulers and makes them the main focus of the piece. Weathered wood rulers replace the steel normally used as the main ingredient in his work. This added to the small details make this piece visually stunning. My obsession with numbers and their meaning in society draws me to this piece specifically.

About Me

Robert Mars’ artwork chronicles an evolving fascination with the Golden Age of American popular culture and celebrates the icons of the 1950’s and 60’s
by taking inspiration from this culture long past. Through the application of a rich color palette and tongue-in-cheek attitude, Mars’ paintings evoke a
vintage quality of design and pay homage to the idealized age of growth and hopefulness that was prevalent in the USA at the end of the Depression.
A time before the internet and mobile technology, where information was not instantly available to millions and there was no such thing as instant internet
celebrities, and instead people lived with the myth of the unique, untouchable and unforgettable personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, James
Dean, Audrey Hepburn and Elvis Presley.
Mars’ work is exhibited with the likes of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Robert Rauschenberg,
and has been shown worldwide including galleries in Munich, Tokyo, Amsterdam, London, Australia, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, Paris, Aspen, and Bulgaria.